I've been lurking these forums for a while. Ever since Aug 30 probably. Finally decided to make a post about this idea I had.
The title should be pretty self explanatory. I've mostly been paying attention to the stickied topics, so forgive me if something like this has already been suggested. I think something like this could work and work well. For one thing, as far as MMOs, CoH involves probably the least effort to play. I know of no other that allows you to set any ability to auto attack and since a vast majority of MMOs copied off of WoW, you don't even need to be behind people when using the Rogue/Stalker class/archtype. And really liked that. I could have fun and relax at the same time.
The only problem I see with trying to adopt CoH to, say, the d20 system is loot. You get loot in CoH, sure, but it's so very much unlike the kind of stuff you find in other games. In other games you get items that you can imagine holding and interacting with. CoH has recipes for neat little trading card type things that give bonuses when you collect the whole set. This does kinda make sense, for hero players anyway. They don't seem like the type to loot bodies in the first place, so even if some sort of item system was shoehorned into the formula, how would the non-villains get swag? One option and the easiest would be to just leave out items/enhancements entirely. I hear that enhancements were a later addition anyway.
I feel this is a very viable option to preserve CoH. The game has always been about the story and the various characters I made. At least to me. Even though I didn't frequent the unofficial RP server that often I'd find myself occasionally doing something like speaking in the third person. Because when your name is Lightningo and you're Spanish, it's like there's an unwritten law that requires you to speak in the third person. :)
Not only would the essentials of the game still exist, but we'd easily be able to put together the rest of the Incarnate story as well as the Signature Story Arc stuff with either some bright writers or, with any luck, help from the actual writers. Even if we have to make up our own story, we can at least give the Incarnate Arc closure.
As far as the Incarnate Abilities themselves, I'm fine with just leaving them out entirely. I like that it gave the devs a way to extend player progression beyond level 50. I like the story that went along with it.... I just didn't care much for the powers themselves other than Alpha which gets a pass because it's an auto. I really think the Incarnate path would have been better off similar to the Patron/Ancillary Powers. You know, with a theme that you just followed all the way through. Also, on the subject of the Patron Powers, those were just fluff as well. Ancillary Powers, for the most part, could be an extension of your preexisting primary and/or secondary powers. With the Patron Powers... you have immobilizing ghost sharks. :/ In fact, now that we have the option to, we could rework the entire leveling system entirely if we wanting. Sad to say, this is about the only thing in Champions Online that I actually like. The idea behind it anyway. Maybe do it more like D&D where you gain levels in a particular set of powers and can choose to start gaining levels in another, but be unable to gain further levels in a power set you left.
Those are discussions for another time, however. I have very little experience with D&D type games myself, but I could totally get behind a CoH pen and paper RPG. I'm mostly just post this to see what everyone thought of the idea. And I do know that there's a guide to adapting whatever you want to the d20 system, so all we really need is someone or a group of someones to put it all together.
On a side note, has anyone done some sort of montage video of the various zones in the game? We'll likely never get a chance to see them again come Nov. 30 so it'd be nice to reminisce. CoH always had some of the strangest architecture I've ever seen. Like, for example, that giant concrete plateau in the middle of Cap. What's up with that?
Likewise, doing the same with the various NPC archvillains and/or contacts would be nice.
This game had some pretty great visuals after that graphics update. It doesn't look at all like it's eight years old. Be a shame to see it all go to waste.
I've been running a superhero RPG built up from the nWoD System for three years now. The problem is that the system is more about drama than action, which is pretty much the opposite of what CoH needs.
To be honest, capturing the "feel" of CoH is hard, since it doesn't use many stats. A system without attributes and skills would make most sense, but then you might as well go with heroclix, or a tabletop game.
That aside, I could try to convert the superhero system I have to CoH, but as I said, it's a hard conversion.
Hmm. Well, I still think it would be worth the effort. I'll do it myself if no one more qualified wants to. Or make some sort of collaborative effort. I just really want to preserve the game in any way I can, you know? Pen and paper type RPGs just seem like the right direction, for myself anyway. It's simple... ish, and with some time and imagination, who knows?
And yeah, I know of Heroclix and I was pretty sure I wasn't the first to think of "superhero pen and paper RPG". I just want it in CoH form.
You might be able to "reverse engineer" a system from the stats produced by Sentinel+. I'll run it on a few of my characters (different levels, powersets, etc.) to see if anything jumps out at me, but it's been almost 20 years since I've tried anything like this.
Converting from AD&D to D&D and back was at least similar, but, for D&D/AD&D to Shadowrun, we just chucked the stats altogether and adapted an existing creature, for instance.
Well, I just use GURPS. That way, you can just customize whatever you want into what you need. I think a level 1 hero is between 200 and 300 points, depending on how he's built.
And, the game (CoH) was created by a group of folks who had played Champions as kids. Even though the 6th edition rules are designed to let you shift "seamlessly" back and forth between PnP and MMO, I'd go back to 2nd or 3rd edition, just because that was what I played. You can still find the books on eBay for not very much, but I happen to be fortunate enough to have all of mine plus the set that one of the other guys had accumulated. (I have boys of about the right age where he doesn't.)
As a Champions player from the very first edition ever ( back in the early 80's ).. I would just play that rather the trying to create something new..
As tempting as making a proprietary system is from a design challenge standpoint, there exist perfectly good effects-based systems that will capture the feel of CoH quite nicely.
RISUS (a free one you can google at your leisure) is the simplest I can think of, but may be a touch TOO simple for most tastes.
BESM 3e (or 2e, or TriStat dX) can do it, too, and they're now effectively free if you can find them because the company that owns the rights went out of business. Finding them is the hard part.
Mutants and Masterminds - especially the third edition - is a d20 system...sort of. It's so heavily modified specifically to cater to superhero feel that you might not recognize the d20 roots if you didn't know to look for them. However, you can fairly easily build just about any CoX character in it, and it would be my recommendation.
Again, building one's own system has its allure, but it's a ton of work. If you just want this for personal use, then going with one of the generic-setting systems is your best bet; you can put the CoX setting in just fine yourself with a lot less work than trying to reconstruct the mechanics for PnP.
Would be interesting to see how far the people who were licensed to make the PnP RPG a while back got, and what happened to that work.
While it may not work at all for a superhero RPG, I just feel like mentioning that, a few months ago, I ran across the concept of nontransitive dice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontransitive_dice), and thought it would be interesting to have a breakdown of "stat tiers" in an RPG wherein each tier used one of the die types.
My thoughts went to "Luck," "Talent," and "Skill," with Luck being a stat everybody has, but some have more than others, "Talents" being a set of "raw stats" like strength, agility, cunning, etc. that people have in varying amounts, and "Skills" being the more narrow categories of "stuff you can be good at" like "fisticuffs" and "computers" and "dancing" and the like. Skills can be rated at 0, unlike the others.
The thought process went, "Better lucky than good" (which means Luck should on average beat Skill) and that Talent trumps Luck, but skill overcomes talent.
I had several competing ways I could see die pools being generated. You could ALWAYS roll Luck, and whether it was Luck+Talent+Skill for the appropriate action or it was "pick one" would depend on how the mechanic worked.
I haven't managed to do a lot with it, as you can see, but I just thought I'd share the thought, since we're discussing PnP mechanics here.
There was CoH RPG in production once - the demo game is still out on drivethrurpg and a few other places. It includes some explanation of basic mechanics plus a bunch of character sheets for canon characters. Perhaps some semblance of the underlying character design rules could be reverse engineered?
I've made 2e Mutants and Masterminds sheets for the three of my characters that I care about. The ridiculously flexible M&M system accommodated them just fine; all that's needed now is a campaign setting.
I have the CoH RPG demo and the ruleset it is based on. If someone were to spend time they could create the whole game.
If people are just doing this for private use, sort of under everyone's radar, it's probably safe. If the intent is to promote it and sell it, it'll run into IP trouble, because an RPG created by someone who hasn't purchased the right to create such a game from the original rights holder (NCSoft) is creating an unauthorized derivative work. That's a (civil) violation of NCSoft's copyright in the story material.
If the intent is to discuss it and let people know about it and give it away, that's a bit of a grey area. Technically, it would infringe NCSoft's copyright, but copyright holders traditionally don't pursue that kind of thing for two reasons. First, if it's free, it's harder to prove damages for the violation (though not impossible). Second, things like this are the way IP's become well known. To give another example from the superhero world, if some guy at a comic convention draws a picture of Superman without the permission of DC, he's infringed various IP rights of theirs. But DC would be crazy to pursue him for infringing their copyrights or trademark, because by drawing, showing, and giving away that Superman picture, the guy is essentially promoting Superman for free.
In a sense, whether NCSoft would even notice something like this comes down to (1) how vindictive NCSoft wants to be and (2) how much money it wants to throw at the issue. Given the company's peculiar behavior, I can't begin to guess at either of those things.
I don't think creating an entirely new system would be a good call for this. modifying an existing one would be better.
D20 wouldn't be too bad to do, because the strength of D20 is that so many things have rules, but are tracked separately.
Depending on how custom you wanted to go, you could base the concept off of Martial Adepts from 3.5 D&D...
I could go further in to this, but I'm already late for work.
Quote from: Zolgar on November 15, 2012, 07:14:25 PM
I don't think creating an entirely new system would be a good call for this. modifying an existing one would be better.
D20 wouldn't be too bad to do, because the strength of D20 is that so many things have rules, but are tracked separately.
Depending on how custom you wanted to go, you could base the concept off of Martial Adepts from 3.5 D&D...
I could go further in to this, but I'm already late for work.
Eh...d20's okay. I still say GURPS would be best. It's more adaptable, and you can pretty much model any character with it.
On the subject of the "loot" and why it was different in the game.
I never really saw it as "Loot" per se.
The trading card analogy isn't bad. But doesn't get to the heart of it.
What I saw in it was that the enhancements - TOs, DOs, SOs, IOs and IO sets - was a pretty effective way to fine tune a characters abilities in a game that essentially HAS NO STATS.
Every Scrapper starts out with the same stats depending on their AT. Regen Scrappers get the specific regen boost, Inv Scrappers got resistance. SR Scrappers got Defense etc. But within those, they pretty much all started with the same "Stats".
The sets and such were a way to have "loot" that wasn't really loot. And a way for a non-stat based system to actually have growth.
My MA/SR Scrapper is a specialist. He's possibly in the top 98% of his class in terms of dodging and avoiding attacks. But some other person might have - despite starting with /SR as well, taken a more balanced approach, opting to add resistance to balance out the defense.
In a game built on points like Champions, all this is transparent. It's right there on the character sheet (and kinda complex, to be honest.) In CoH I think the Devs rightly considered that most people would rather be DOING STUFF than number crunching. So that's why the numbers were initially not a factor.
Honestly, I have no idea why making a new ruleset is necessary. Champions, in its first few editions, and GURPS Supers already do the job nicely. Trying to come up with a new system runs the risk of ending up with a muddled mess, like the old Middle Earth RPS or the FASA Doctor Who. Champions/Hero could be a bit math-intensive, especially with things like knockback, but it was at least accessible to the casual player.
There are a couple advantages to the D20 system:
The OGL for one.
And it's super accessible to .. pretty much anyone. The math is simple, it mostly makes sense.. it's probably the easiest Pen and Paper system to learn.
Unless we intended to try and publish the game, I don't think it would be worth using a new system, to be honest. CoH is a /video game/, video games and pen and paper games are entirely different beasts.. trying to capture the feel of CoH mechanics in a pen and paper game just doesn't work very well... so if people want a CoH 'pen and paper' game, use the world, tweak the rules of your favorites superheroish system and have fun with a group.
In terms of publishing, well, presuming we had the issues of IP rights out of the way... we have three main options:
Build a new game from the ground up
Highly modify an existing system
Use an existing system and just add classes to it and some new rules and create a "Paragon City" splat book with lore and stuff.
Each of those options has it's own strengths and weaknesses:
New system:
Pros:
We can do whatever we want and make the system as close to City of Heroes as is possible and/or fun.
No dealing with licensing for the system on top of the content.
Cons:
Time. Oh god, the time.
Getting new players interested in learning an entirely new system.
Modified system:
Pros:
Base groundwork of balance is already laid out for us, as are other simple mechanics.
Easier for people already familiar with that system to pick up.
Still the flexibility to keep some of the feel of CoH.
Cons:
Licensing possibly.
The potential of "I don't like X system!"
Trying to balance new ideas with a system not built for it.
Existing system:
Pros:
Everything is balanced and ready for us.
Pre-existing fanbase, including people who would buy the book for new things to add to their game.
Cons:
Licensing
Limited demand depending on the system used.
Shoehorning CoH in to a mold of someone else's mechanics.
I've been suggesting this as well. In fact, I strongly suggest having a separate section of Titan Forums for roleplaying to go up the moment CoH closes.
I also ask that they not go up until the moment CoH closes.
My brother and myself are still running a 4thEd Champions supers game. Admittedly, the game seems to be on hiatus for now as the GM's are preoccupied making screenshots of CoH costume parts. ;)
I've been considering a Wild Talents / One Roll Engine version of the CoH powers, since I feel it is probably the best system to duplicate the speed of playing a super combat situation in near real time in a PnP environment. I plan on analyzing the power descriptions from Mid's Hero Designer and assigning appropriate effects and dice levels.
I've played nearly every Superhero PnP for over 30 years now with Champions, Villains and Vigilantes, Superworld, GURPS, as well as Mutants and Masterminds. But for effects flexibility and speed of combat determination, I've been thinking about the ORE system as the way to go. Most other systems require multiple rolls to determine to hit rolls and effects, or massive piles of dice. ORE can do all that with just one throw of 2-10 10-sided dice.
I DL'd the CoH quickplay and I'll be looking through it over the weekend. Expect some feedback on monday.
Throwing this out there...
I fully support folks here developing Plan Z but I also wouldn't think it'd hurt to try developing another program in the direction of the pen & paper experience. I'd like a Skype-influenced chat program with a built-in map maker, dice roller, importable character sheets and the like... even including a searchable rule book "help" menu.
With the growing list of programmers in these forums, I'd hope this less-graphic program would be a cheaper/quicker open source program to construct...
Has anyone considered that the real meat of City of Heroes is the City itself, the background history, the lore (and by lore I include the background and signature characters on both Hero and Villain side.)
Why not simply write up a "Universal" Setting Guide that would be useful for any game system?
For example - I don't play GURPS. But I find their well-researched settings guides invaluable. Stuff like their own Supers World. Or the various timelines in GURPS Infinite Earths.
How about do a One-size-fits-all guide that goes into the history and setting of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles? Add in personal histories and background guides of the major signature characters. Then - say for example, with the section on Lord Nemesis, have multiple character sheets. One for D20. One for Champions/Hero System. One for Mutants and Masterminds. One for GURPS etc.
Then you'd have something that anybody could use for any campaign and any system.
Quote from: Atlantea on November 16, 2012, 11:21:35 AM
Has anyone considered that the real meat of City of Heroes is the City itself, the background history, the lore (and by lore I include the background and signature characters on both Hero and Villain side.)
Why not simply write up a "Universal" Setting Guide that would be useful for any game system?
For example - I don't play GURPS. But I find their well-researched settings guides invaluable. Stuff like their own Supers World. Or the various timelines in GURPS Infinite Earths.
How about do a One-size-fits-all guide that goes into the history and setting of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles? Add in personal histories and background guides of the major signature characters. Then - say for example, with the section on Lord Nemesis, have multiple character sheets. One for D20. One for Champions/Hero System. One for Mutants and Masterminds. One for GURPS etc.
Then you'd have something that anybody could use for any campaign and any system.
Or or less my point about saying that if we weren't gonna publish it we'd just wanna do our own thing.
For about the past two years I've been running a forum based "Pencil and paper" RP set, ostensibly, in the City of Heroes world.
It takes place in a different city, and remains open to anyone who is not a City of Heroes player(as most of my players aren't), but draws on a lot of the lore, world history, legal precedence from the City of Heroes setting. With some of my own events added(such as an alien invasion threatening the world long before we knew of the Rikti, slightly mirroring the storyline of the PC game Freedom Force).
I use the City of Heroes costume character generator as a "paper doll" designer to give the player characters a portrait of their characters, and have on occasion used in game screenshots to set the mood and describe a scene, and they were all very shocked to hear that it was closing before some of them got a chance to join. But that's neither here nor there anymore.
I have the Champions rule book, but to be honest, as much as I love Champions, I far prefer City of Heroes, and the Champions numbering system with all the math involved is just too much work for a pick up and go, no need to explain much, forum based game.
As such I use the Classic Marvel or FASERIP system, as seen here http://classicmarvelforever.com/cms/ and of course, for forum play I simplified and modified it in a number of minor ways. However, why I bring this up is that I worked out a basic frame for the City of Heroes archetype, powerset, and level system to work within the FASERIP system.
Basically put, while I allow my players full freedom to fine tune their character to their whims, when I need an NPC hero or villain I look at my City of Heroes roster(I'm an Altaholic with over 75 characters at least at mid level). "Level 30, Brute, Super Strength/Dark Armor w/ Flight" put through the framing system gives me all the FASERIP stats I need. Viola, I have an NPC to pit against my players.
Also, let me point out that by level 30+ CoH characters get scary powerful. As in punch out armored cars powerful. Any Mayhem mission will tell you that, but it's rather driven home for me during this game. But I digress again, please excuse me.
Now, I've seen conversion sheets for Champions to Classic Marvel, and back. So rather than attempt to make a CoH Pencil and Paper RPG(I've got the early demo, I was less than impressed. I would have stuck to just using the CoH CCG rules.) how about instead we take the City of Heroes world, preserve it's history and setting, including some decent evocative images(which the ParagonWiki has some of, but isn't necessarily the best for), and then instead of attempting to make multiple character sheets, we provide a base skeleton outline, and then the rules for how that outline can be converted to the other systems.
In the above you refer to Lord Nemesis, who(among other things) is a force field user. Well, if you have the rules for how force field powers translate into D20, HeroSystem, Mutant&Masterminds, GURPS, etc. That way you can have the rules for Nemesis, Sister Psyche(help me out here, who are some more big name Force Field users?), etc. all resolved at once. What's the point of writing up four+ different versions of Lord Nemesis, one for each system, when you can provide the CoH information on Lord Nemesis, and the translation conventions to work in the four other systems?
Admitted, some information is lost in translation to the new system(for example, ClassicMarvel has a stat specifically for melee fighting skill, where as Champions does not), but a proper GM for a pencil and paper RP will fine tune these translated characters anyway, taking into account what is 'lost' and fitting it in another way.
City of Heroes has always attempted to keep itself open to interpretation, remaining easy and fun to understand and play without getting bogged down in mechanics. Therefore the really important part of this is gathering up the history and setting guide.
I toyed with doing some 4th ed conversions for heroes, using at wills, encounters etc for different tier powers.
Now I plan on using classic marvel superheroes. The different tier powers can either be stunts or ranks.
And using pargonwiki as the main source book for fluff.
Hopefully we get someway of accessing costume editor which was my original plan for characters before sunset - feels tragically wrong to go to CO for costumes.
After looking through the CoH RPG and deeming the rules in it a "horrible, convoluted mess that puts Rolemaster to shame", I fully second JediWar's idea of a universal CoH sourcebook. Or perhaps a set of sourcebooks focusing on different aspects of the game.
I'd also volunteer for converting systems to the nWoD ruleset. As mentioned, I'm already running a P&P superhero game with the nWoD rules and quite a few mechanics and concepts "borrowed" from CoH. I should be able to whip up a character creation, powers and stats rather quick.
Quote from: Des_Tructive on November 15, 2012, 11:54:31 AM
A system without attributes and skills would make most sense, but then you might as well go with heroclix, or a tabletop game.
Amber Diceless (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Diceless_Roleplaying_Game) could work, especially if the game switched to using the fan created 'partial powers' system. There's only 4 attributes and the skills system is "BS'ing the GM why your character knows how to do that."
Nobilis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobilis) might work as well, especially if you wanted to start looking at a more metaphysical version of the incarnates.
Both of those have the advantage of being focused almost entirely on the social aspect of the game: you and your friends out saving the world/conquering the world/supporting the Empire/taking the Empire down. Combat is downplayed and becomes much more of a descriptive process.
Quote from: Atlantea on November 16, 2012, 11:21:35 AM
Why not simply write up a "Universal" Setting Guide that would be useful for any game system?
I acknowledge that it would be a massive undertaking of time, and I have no where near enough knowledge of the lore to help, but I would forever love anyone who gathered this information together.
QuoteAnd using pargonwiki as the main source book for fluff.
As am I, but the Paragon Wiki doesn't have quite the amount of stuff I'd like to use. For example, I took a good screenshot of the Four Kings Textile Mill(west side of Kings Row) to use as a setting for one of my adventures. Paragon Wiki has no screenshot of that, or of the Valor Bridge, or a number of other landmarks. Simply getting a decent map of some of the zones, the in game map would suffice, would be nice.
QuoteHopefully we get someway of accessing costume editor which was my original plan for characters before sunset - feels tragically wrong to go to CO for costumes.
I really hope there is somewhat to access the costume editor after the close, but so far it doesn't look like it. If there is, please contact me! The costume editor requires contact with the server, and if those are shutting down, well...
Oh, and I tired using Champions Online. I was hobbled by a few points. One: I'm free to play on Champions. So obviously I don't have access to everything. Two: Even if I had the full Champions game, I don't think I would have an option to modify powers in that game(you can pick them freeform, but your fire is always the same fire, you can't colorize it or pick different animations). When posing my "paper dolls" I like them to have their weapons/shield out or maybe striking a pose from a power activation. Simply put City of Heroes outranks Champions in character creation. Despite some of Champions advances over City of Heroes(more scaling options, five instead of two color options for most costume parts, allowing one side to be different from the other), City of Heroes has both the 7+ years of options being added and innovations that Champions can't match.
And, finally, Champions has in my opinion, and my players opinion, a horrible design sensibility. Champions is designed to look "cartoonish". Or rather, everyone there is meant to look like an action figure. No skin texture, everything is either plastic, matte plastic, or shiny plastic. I tried it out for one of my players and her reply was "I don't want a barbie doll, I want a super heroine!" Amusingly, they'd rather have the Star Trek Online character generator, which at least gives skin textures, than Champions. Both use the same engine and both are/were Cryptic(/Atari/PerfectWorld).
Not to badmouth Champions. Love the pencil and paper game, and the online game isn't horrible either. It's just not City of Heroes.
QuoteI fully second JediWar's idea of a universal CoH sourcebook.
Atlantea's idea I think. I was just providing a little more fine tuning on the concept. I just didn't agree that we needed multiple write ups on all points trying to cover all possible systems. Simply taking the information provided by the Paragon Wiki gives you all the necessary ingame information on powers and enemy factions, which can be translated on a case by case basis depending on what system you believe would capture the spirit you wish to preserve. What we need though is to gather the materials needed to build the setting and history. I'd like Paragon Wiki to be slightly better, and I fear there's not enough time to collect all the screenshots of landmarks. Additionally, there is information on the site, such as the timeline, that fills in lore and backstory that isn't on the Wiki(at least not that I can find).
Converting the Wiki to a source book, even without adding any new information, would be a massive undertaking in itself. Adding in the questionably 'canon' content of the comicbooks and the novels, plus the website lore write ups...
Well, perhaps when things have been sunset, people might get ahold of the concept art for all the zones...?
I saw the old CoH pen and paper in a comic shop once... but at the time I figured I had the real thing, and could always run an M&M campaign if need be. Now I have the latter at least, but at that point why not just run your own setting... depressing as it may sound.
Quote from: malonkey1 on November 23, 2012, 02:56:48 AM
Well, perhaps when things have been sunset, people might get ahold of the concept art for all the zones...?
. . . I would pay for a book of that!
Okay, I've paid for just about every City of Heroes book that's made it to print(and the novels by the way are quite worth it). Heck, even the Secret World Chronicles, which isn't City of Heroes at all, but the authors drew on the world to make their own, is worth a the time to find, buy and read(or listen to for free http://secretworldchronicle.com/ ).
But seriously, by this point the Prima guides my father bought for the game, the only good thing about them is that it has some snippets of concept art in it(Nemesis Jaegers were meant to have a tunneling travel power?). And of course a lot of faulty information that gives me a good look at how things were planned to go, but didn't.
Really? No one responds to my suggestion? No one's interested in playing pen-and-paper thru a chat medium? I'm surprised.
For the record, you can recolor your powers in Champions Online if you're a subscriber, and many powers will even let you customize the emanation point (so, for example, you can set Fire Strike to shoot from an open hand, a closed fist, your chest, or your head), and you can recolor/reanimate your powers at any time directly from the Powers interface without having to visit a Tailor. It's actually surprisingly flexible that way. (The animations and colors revert to the default if you go F2P again, however, even if you unlock the character for F2P use)
I have plenty of problems with Champions Online (the lack of effective mez powers, the lack of elemental melee, "Support" meaning "healzor", etc.), but power customization is not one of them.
... but I've gotten off-topic.
A P&P-styled game (over the internet or otherwise) could be fun, but I'm not sure it'd really recreate what I enjoy in CoH. I find myself falling into the background in such groups (regardless of my characters' powers or personality), rather than leading the charge like I do in CoH.
QuoteAtlantea's idea I think. I was just providing a little more fine tuning on the concept.
Ouch! Apologies to my former SG-Mate *hides* Nonetheless, the sourcebook approach with plugins based on system makes most sense. All we need is someone willing to organize the efforts.
QuoteReally? No one responds to my suggestion? No one's interested in playing pen-and-paper thru a chat medium? I'm surprised.
Been there, done that. Think the software we used was written in python, but don't remember the Name. The biggest problem is that it costs a
lot of time, and even worse, you never know what's going on on the other screens. Our Eberron group actually saw the GM fall asleep once, with us waiting for almost an hour for him to reply. So, me, for one, not interested.
http://gamingnerdsrus.co/forum/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=500
A friend put together a 4th ed D&D CoH game that was quite fun, you can do it with many systems if you take old CoH characters and convert them so both player and GM have a feel for what the charcter could do, rather than try to make new ones.
I'm not over familiar with 4E but I believe he based the powers on the way psionics work hence introducing the concept of "endurance".
Yeah, altering Psion rules seems like the most sensible choice.
In my nWoD superpowers expansion, I have the secondary trait "Force", which caps their power uses per scene, they can use temporary points to "force" effects after exhaustion. Basically my WoD take on Endurance.